The Witcher: RotWW Cancelled, The Witcher 2 up

Details are sketchy, but the following facts have been confirmed: after the release of The Witcher, CD Projekt Red took the financial obligation of starting 3 projects simultaneously, a console port of The Witcher, and two more titles based on The Witcher intellectual property, one of which was The Witcher 2.

As the financial crisis hit, the studio was affected as well, finding itself incapable of managing all three projects and forced to lay off a significant portion of its staff. The third Witcher IP project was cancelled, and its entire crew was let go or left of their own volition. A second round of layoffs followed as The Witcher: Rise of the White Wolf was cancelled, including around two dozen people losing their jobs yesterday.

All funds and manpower have been redirected to a single project, The Witcher 2, which will be a multi-platform title for PC and consoles.

The company isn't folding wholesale. 2 AAA projects and 1 port was just too much to balance, 1 major AAA project sounds better, and you gotta like that it's TW2, even if it is cross-platform.

I'm not sure how many talents that worked on TW remain tho'. I was made to understand the talent leak was "significant".

Originally Posted by Gorath
It's probably true. Otherwise CDP would have denied it more energetically.

I trust the source who confirmed it to me, but it's only one source and I wasn't there, so I'm not 100% sure. But I am pretty damned close to that…I was told a few days ago, and then Polygamia basically came with the same rumour, and no denial as you say, it is pretty close to being confirmed.

The non-comment here and the changed status of Tom Ohle I spotted all point in the same direction. And it's not a good one

Originally Posted by Zakhary
My thoughts exactly.
A nice big warm cup of so f'ing what.

I didn't personally care about the console port, but I did hope it would profitable for them. The more money they make the more likely they'll weather this financial crisis and continue both TW series and maybe more types of English games as well. I don't want one of the few companies that actually try making deep RPGs to go belly up like Troika.

Originally Posted by Zakhary
My thoughts exactly.
A nice big warm cup of so f'ing what.

I don't care about the console port as such either, but I care very much about the financial health of CD Projekt RED. They've clearly put a non-trivial amount of resources into RotWW, which they couldn't afford since they're clearly hurting economically, which means that the future of The Witcher is looking grimmer.

Originally Posted by Prime Junta
I don't care about the console port as such either, but I care very much about the financial health of CD Projekt RED. They've clearly put a non-trivial amount of resources into RotWW, which they couldn't afford since they're clearly hurting economically, which means that the future of The Witcher is looking grimmer.

True.

But! The news post also includes this little bit too:
"All funds and manpower have been redirected to a single project, The Witcher 2, which will be a multi-platform title for PC and consoles. "
Which is nice.

—
That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.

I think we can all agree that The Witcher was something special. Here's hoping that TW2 lives up to the same standard.

I must admit that I am a little nervous about it being a multi-platform title this time around. I truly hope that the PC version is developed to it's fullest potential, and that no corners are cut to make it "equal" across all platforms.